All new mothers and fathers should have “parenting classes” and schools should
offer a GCSE in taking care of young children, a Government review
recommends today.

Frank Field, a Labour MP who studied social mobility for the Coalition, concluded that parenting plays a significant role in determining whether children born to poor parents grow up to be poor.

He recommended that public money and resources be focussed much more tightly on helping children from poor families in their early years.

A new Cabinet-level ministerial post should be created to oversee new early years interventions. Children should also be closely monitored and their mental, physical and emotional development registered and reported, he said.

Mr Field, a former Labour welfare minister, concluded that parental attention and ambitions for children can matter even more for poor children than those in wealthy homes.

“Poor parenting exists across the income distribution, but tends to have less of an impact on better off children where other factors provide greater protection against poor outcomes,” he said.

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Parenting courses should be “offered as routine to new parents”, the report recommended. Such courses “should be seen as something normal to do, rather than remedial, or something only for low income families.”

Children’s Centres and home visitors should encourage parents to come to parenting courses “as a matter of course” during a child’s first three years.

And councils should ensure that all new parents have early access to a parenting course, the report found. Health visitors should offers “to sign them up as a matter of routine, initially targeting this on those most likely to benefit.”

As well as new parents, children themselves should be taught “parenting and life skills” in preparation for having children themselves, Mr Field said.

Lessons should begin at primary school and culminate with a “a cross-curricular qualification in parenting at GCSE level”.

To measure the success of new measures to help poor children, the report recommended Government departments compiled new “Life Chances Indicators” measuring children's cognitive, physical and emotional development at the ages of three and five.

Mr Field also suggested reform of the education system, which he said should be split into three parts, starting with the Foundation Years, covering the period between conception and five years old.